Cruz: President Should Address Obamacare Failings in SOTU Address
WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today called on President Obama to hold himself and his administration accountable for the continuing harm his health law is inflicting upon Americans around the country.
Regarding Obamacare, Sen. Cruz has asked:
“Will the President finally recognize that it was a mistake to ram through Obamacare on a party-line vote and that, right now, it is hurting millions of Americans? Will he take real responsibility for misleading the American people when he falsely promised “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” and “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”? Will he acknowledge that he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally rewrite the health law for powerful favored interests such as big business and Congress? And will he finally work with Congress to repeal Obamacare and start over, adopting instead reforms that will make healthcare more personal, portable, and affordable?”
This is one of five crucial questions Sen. Cruz is asking President Obama to answer in his State of the Union Address to help restore credibility to his Administration and more confidence in Washington.
“The American people deserve answers,” said Cruz. “President Obama should use his pen to sign laws approved by representatives of the American people, or to fire agency officials who violate the law – not to rule by fiat.”
Obamacare is destroying jobs, killing insurance plans, causing premiums to increase and people to lose their doctors. More Americans stand to suffer in the coming year as more of the law’s mandates, rules, and regulations go into effect this year.
In an appearance on Face the Nation on Sunday, Cruz said:
“President Obama ought to look into the TV camera and say to the over 5 million Americans all over the country who have had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare and say, ‘I’m sorry.’” He added, “If you’re really sorry you don’t just say you’re sorry. You actually do something to fix the problem. The pattern we’ve seen over and over again with this president is that he says he’s sorry and he expresses outrage, but then he doesn’t fix the problem. He keeps doing it over and over again.”
Sen. Cruz, along with three other Republican senators, also filed an amicus brief today in support of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties’ challenge against Obamacare’s contraception mandate. Sen. Cruz has asked a series of questions that Americans expect President Obama to answer in his State of the Union address. The remaining questions are as follows:
- Will the President allow the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor to fully investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservatives? The President should be eager to prove he has clean hands on this issue. He professed to be angry and outraged by the IRS abuse. Will he pledge to stop new IRS rules that restrict the free speech of non-profit groups?
- Will the President act to ensure that the privacy of law-abiding citizens is protected from unjustifiable violations by arms of the federal government such as the NSA, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Health and Human Services?
- Will the President recognize that his economic policies have failed to create the millions of jobs that he promised and have, instead, reduced the labor force participation rate to its lowest level in decades? Will he commit to commonsense, job-creating policies such as the immediate authorization of the Keystone Pipeline, a moratorium on new regulations, and fundamental tax reform for every American?
- Will the President call on Congress to form a Joint Select Committee to finally discover the truth of why four Americans perished in a preventable terrorist attack in Benghazi 16 months ago?
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